ABSTRACT
B. E. Clayton and F. T. G. Prunty reported that guinea pigs on a scorbutogenic diet showed a gradual but well-marked increase in urinary 17-ketosteroid excretion, which reached a peak in the terminal phases of scurvy. When A. Szent-Gyorgyi isolated a strong reducing agent from the adrenal cortex of the ox and found it to be an acidic six-carbon sugar, he named it hexuronic acid. Studying guinea pigs on a scorbutogenic diet, H. M. Guirgis reported a decrease in the urinary 17-hydroxycorticoid excretion, from a daily mean of 98 to 54 µg on day 12, then an increase to 245 µg daily by day 21. Many studies of adrenal function in scorbutic guinea pigs were conducted in the 1950s; none of them was truly comparable to another, but they eventually led to the conclusion that adrenal corticosteroid production is increased in scurvy.
